My Little Lioness
by halffictionalprincess
Summary: Lily Luna Potter is acting sad,and her father is worried about his little lioness. He doesn't know how, but he's determined to fix it for her.


_**A/n- Written for the Great Maze Competition, with the prompt "A father's child. A mother's child. No one's son."**_

_**Disclaimer- I. Don't. Own. Anything.**_

_**My Little Lioness...**_

Harry Potter was getting a little worried about his daughter.

His mind raced as he climbed up the stairs, she'd been quite all evening, much quieter than they were used to, and to everyone's dismay, she'd been especially cold to Rose, who'd looked both hurt and confused.

And now it was two in the morning and she wasn't in bed but on the roof. Something was very wrong, Harry was sure of it.

He reached the final step and opened the door leading up to the roof, and found her sitting on the edge.

"Hey, sweetheart, what are you doing up here?" he asked as he walked towards her, and sat down.

She turned her face away from him, but not before he saw the tears on her rosy cheeks.

"Nothing, I just...uh...couldn't sleep," she replied, with a cheer Harry recognized as fake.

His worry increased, his daughter had never lied to him before. He wanted to push, ask her what was going on, but after years of 'what goes on in the female mind' lessons from Hermione, he'd learned enough to know better.

They sat in silence for a while, he didn't ask her what was wrong, he wanted to, but he didn't. His mind, though, decided to reach to the worst possibilities.

His fifteen year old daughter wasn't a rule follower, none of his kids were. He guessed they got that from him, but they did know the difference between right and wrong. So, he did have a strong conviction that she'd never do anything that she knew wasn't right.

"He likes Rose," Lily said after a while, but she still didn't look at him.

"Who?" he asked, confused.

"Scorpios," she replied, "He really likes Rose,"

The first thought in Harry's mind was that he hoped Ron never found out about this. The second was that he didn't know why his daughter was telling him this.

Then a bulb lit in his mind.

"But she doesn't like him," Lily continued, "Which, honestly, I don't understand why. He's so sweet, and he's really nice, and I know you guys don't like his dad much but he's nothing like that. And, these days, all he wants to do is either talk to Rose or talk about her. It gets really annoying sometimes. I understand why he likes her, though, I mean, she's really pretty and so amazing at studies and-," her voice broke, and Harry's heart hurt for his daughter.

"And I'm invisible. He doesn't even know I exist, apart from the fact that I'm Rose's sister, and maybe I'd be able to help him get her, and I just-,"she broke down, her shoulders shook, and the sound of her sobs filled the night.

She laid her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his hands around her. He wished he could take all her hurt away, make it better. She calmed down a little and started to talk again.

"I know I'm not that pretty or that smart but I'm not unlikeable-,"

"No," he cut her off, and took her face in his hands, anger boiled in his gut and he hated that boy for making daughter, his beautiful, amazing daughter, feel inadequate.

"You are beautiful, intelligent and downright amazing. You are the most likeable person I've ever met. Any boy would be lucky to have you like them."

She smiled and said, "You're just saying that because you're my Dad,"

"Yes, I am your Dad," he replied, "But that doesn't change the fact that you're the most beautiful girl I know, even more than your mom,"

Lily giggled, "She would kill you if she heard you say that,"

"No, she wouldn't, she would agree with me," He said, and as he saw his daughter smile again, the tight fist that was holding his heart loosened.

"And I'm pretty sure that no boy dares ask you out because James and Al have warned everyone off," he added.

What he didn't add was the fact that it had been Harry's idea in the first place.

"They did what?" she squealed, and it was frightening how much the look on her face reminded him of Ginny whenever her brothers tried to mess with her, "Oh, they are so dead,"

He liked that the sadness in her eyes had disappeared, what he didn't like was the plotting glint that had replaced it.

"Oh down, my little lioness," he said, and they both laughed at the old nickname.

"You remember how we came up with that nickname?"She asked, with a huge grin on her face.

"Of course, how could I forget?" he said, "I'm pretty sure you scarred James and Al for life that night,"

"They deserved it," she said, then shrugged.

The story was that when she was six, Lily had, had enough of her brothers teasing her all the time. So, she'd used her powers of persuasion (read: big eyes and innocent smile) to convince teddy to become a lion and enter James and Al's room at night. She'd been hiding behind the door, and had started to speak, convincing her scared-out-of-their-minds brothers that she'd transformed herself into a lioness and was now going to eat them alive.

Harry hadn't known whether to be proud or angry, neither had Ginny.

And now even ten years later, they were still laughing about it.

"You know, I remember the day you were born," he said, a while later, "I was scared out of my mind,"

"You were?"She asked, looking confused that anything could scare her dad.

"Yeah, I had two boys, I didn't know what I was going to do with a little girl," he replied," I was so freaked out that the healers threw me out in the hallway because I was screaming more than Ginny was," she laughed as he talked.

"Hey, it was no joke, I was pacing up and down the hallway, Hermione looked ready to admit me in the mental ward and Ron just looked sympathetic. That was when Rose, who was all of two years old came up to me and asked why I looked as if I'd seen a boggart,"

"What did you tell her?" Lily asked, no longer smiling.

"I told her I was about to have a daughter, a little girl just like her, and I was scared that I wouldn't be a good dad to her, you know what she said?"

"What?"

"She told me, with all two years of wisdom, that I was a wonderful uncle to her, and she was sure that even if I did make mistakes, her little cousin would still think I was the greatest dad in the whole wide world. Then she continued to talk about how excited she was to have a little cousin who would be a girl, since all her sisters were either older than her or boys,"

Harry saw the small smile on Lily's face and continued, "And when the nurse brought you out, I remember looking at you and you were so perfect, so small. You could barely open your eyes, and I remember little Rose jumping to catch a glimpse of you,"

Tears filled Lily's eyes, but there was something more Harry needed to say, "She's your sister, Lily, your best friend, and I don't think you should let a boy get in the way of that,"

He wiped her tears away, and held her for a little longer.

"She was right you know, Rose," she said, looking up at him, "You are the best dad in this world,"

He kissed her forehead and whispered, "And you're my little lioness,"

_**A/n- Please review.**_


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